Monday, August 19, 2013

I‘ve just finished my first ebook using the
(relatively) new epub version 3 format and it’s amazing what can be done. In
fact, you can do almost all what can be done with HTML5 including complex Javascript
programs.

My project is to create a series of ebooks
about my favorite subjects in science: complexity, evolution, artificial intelligence,
etc. And you know what? I have decided to put a lot of technology in that
project. The idea is to use Artificial Intelligence inside an ebook to help
people learn…

My first book will be on “How works a
Computer”, because I realized that many people, even sometime junior
programmers (!), don’t know how a microprocessor executes machine code, its
basic principle, who invented it and when. In the ebook I have integrated a “lab”
which is basically a simulator of a microprocessor. So people will be able not
only to learn but also to experiment directly in the ebook!

At the end, instead of a classical quiz,
you will find an intelligent conversational agent. You can chat with it for
fun, but you can also try to answer questions about what you have learned and
the agent will evaluate your level.

For that project, I have used the first
Javascript implementation of my EVA (Evolutionary Virtual Agent) technology.
The unexpected point was that an ebook does not enable you to integrate HTML text
inputs and thus, for example, the iPad virtual keyboard will never appear... Too
bad. Well, it takes me only few hours to fix that problem by programming from
scratch a new virtual keyboard using HTML5. I’m now in the phase of testing
everything and fix details…